Dr. Kane slept well. When he awoke he was offered some breakfast of boiled blubber. But, unluckily, he had seen the women cooking this, and they were so careless and dirty that he could not touch it. Instead he ate some pieces of frozen liver which he had brought with him. After breakfast he started on a walrus hunt.
IX. HUNTING IN THE ICY NORTH
The walrus has been called “the lion of the seas.” He is a huge animal, often eighteen feet in length. His head is square, and his cheeks and lips are covered with quills like bristles. From his face also extend the tusks, which on the larger animals are often thirty inches in length, and are prized as ivory. Altogether the walrus is a fierce-looking creature, with a tough hide and an ugly temper.
Like the seal, the walrus has to come to the surface of the water to breathe. So Dr. Kane and his Eskimo friends tried to find open water, or, at least, a place where the ice was thin. The walrus has a habit of bellowing as he lies on the ice, so that hunters are guided by this strange and terrible sound. Every few minutes the hunters took off their fur hoods to listen.
At last a large walrus rose through the ice, breaking it with a loud crash. Just as the animal rose out of the water, Dr. Kane and the Eskimos fell at full length, flat on the ice. As soon as the head of the walrus sank below the water again, the hunters jumped up and ran toward the hole, where they knew it would soon reappear. Every time the head of the animal was seen coming to the surface, the hunters would fall to the ice or hide themselves behind hummocks. In this way—now running, now hiding—they at last came near enough to the walrus to throw their harpoon into its body. Tied to the harpoon was a long rope of walrus hide, which uncoiled rapidly as an Eskimo ran away to solid ice with one end in his hand. When at a safe distance, he drove a spike of bone into the ice and fastened the end of the rope to it.
A Walrus Hunt.
Meanwhile, the powerful walrus had been struggling in the water, breaking up the ice around with a frightful noise. The Eskimos tightened the rope whenever they could, and again the walrus rose and threw his powerful body against the ice, breaking it away; now they had to work fast. First one, and then another, would seize the spike and run with it and the rope to a safe place. In this way they tired the animal out, and were able to give him a second wound.
During this battle the walrus roared hideously, using his tusks fiercely. He rushed toward the men and tore away great pieces of ice with his tusks, but though he received many lance wounds, he never once showed fear or made any attempt to run away.